StrongHer Honoree Candace Chandler: ‘God Has Given Me Beauty for My Ashes’

By Chanda Temple | birminghamal.gov Losing her husband to a massive heart attack was gut-wrenching for Candace Chandler. Then, one month later, she miscarried the couple’s first baby. Another gut-wrenching moment. Experiencing the back-to-back losses in 2017 left Chandler lost, confused and severely depressed. “I said, ‘Lord, I can’t do this anymore.’ I wanted to give up,’’ she said. “I went from being at the mountaintop to the valley.” But she told God that if He could help her through her pain, she would serve Him until her dying day. She sought grief counseling, took a 60-day leave from her Birmingham teaching job and focused on self-healing. “I had to surrender to God, and that is why I can walk boldly in my purpose,’’ Chandler, 34, said. “I’m here to let the next person know you can make it past grief, and you don’t have to look like what you are going through.’’ In celebration of Women’s History Month, Chandler’s story is part of the first-ever StrongHer exhibit on the second floor of Birmingham City Hall. The exhibit opened on March 8, which is International Women’s Day and will remain up through mid-April. Chandler broke again in 2021 when her...